Recent events, viewed through the entire lens of the inspired quotes and context which make up God’s inerrant Word, have reminded me that they do. Jerusalem’s stones. Move me to pity. That is, I care about modern-day Israel. In short, I am a Zionist.
My heart is tied to the literal city, and people, of Jerusalem in 2011.
That word “Zionist” is incendiary. Its implications are politically charged. However, I have increasingly come to see that there is no avoiding its use. I embrace it. The physical existence of an Israeli nation, on the geographic territory promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, is a kind of real-world referendum on the promises of God. Israel and the Jews today are a test for the world. Your attitude toward today’s Israel, her people, her borders, her boundaries, her security, is a reflection on your world-view.
American presidents since our founding have been judged by this test, but never more so than since 1948. Does our Chief Executive view Israel through a foreign policy lens based on secular, man-made history that rejects the Bible? If he does, he will attempt to steer MidEast policy on that basis, using modern words like “Palestinian”, “Occupier”, and “Right of Return”.
If, on the other hand, our elected leaders have their Biblical lens in place, they will understand the history of the Middle East entirely differently. This in turn will impact their policy decisions; more importantly, however, it will raise the question starkly and clearly for believers, “In what other arenas do they reject the Scripture?”
The same Word which tells me the Lord Jesus died for my sins, and that if I am faithful to the end in confessing Him as Lord and Savior I will lay hold of eternal life by Grace through Faith, also tells me that the God the Father “will arise and have compassion on Zion…her stones are dear to your servants; her very dust moves them to pity.” (Psalm 102:13-14)
Jerusalem’s very stones are dear to God’s true servants! Zion’s very dust moves God’s true servants to pity!
Meanwhile, those who are not God’s servants will be moved to a fanatical, bizarre hatred toward Jerusalem, a hatred which goes far beyond the ostensible issues of “equality” and “justice” and “advocacy” for those “oppressed” by Israel. I do not believe a believer in Christ can fail to be moved to defend Israel—the safest place, ironically, in the entire Middle East for Palestinians.
In my opinion, God has literally set up Zion as a test for Christians and for those who are not. For the latter, if you see Jerusalem today with a Biblical lens, you are “not far from the kingdom of heaven”. Keep seeking truth in God’s Word. For the former, I believe Christians who refuse to see Jerusalem through a biblical lens are darkening their biblical vision in other areas of life.
That’s why in all Biblical ways and in full Biblical context, I am a modern-day, New Testament Zionist. I hope you are too.
